


Gates to Other Worlds

by Oceanofmars



Category: Original Work
Genre: Dimension Travel, Gen, Giant Spiders, No Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-27
Updated: 2020-03-09
Packaged: 2021-02-25 13:28:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,372
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22433089
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Oceanofmars/pseuds/Oceanofmars
Summary: Today a portal appeared in the old park.  Judith had prepared for an adventure but got more then she anticipated.





	1. Gate in the Park

**Author's Note:**

> Been a while since I've posted a work. Constructive criticism is welcome.

Contrary to common belief sneaking out of the house, at first light, required through planning. As part of her preparation Judith had hidden a messenger bag rescued from the donation pile the last time they had cleaned out the attic. She filled it with some jerky and trail mix, and three water bottles. Judith had already put in the front pockets florescent orange ribbons, jerky and other camping supplies that she had picked up in the dollar sale aisle, and she slipped the flip phone, power source and cable into the bag. Near the top she included a borrowed claw hammer just in case she ran into one of Them when she was exploring.

The house was still, quiet and the morning light was starting to come in through the living room windows. She crept into her brothers room, and she sat on the bottom right bunk bed. Her second oldest brother Dominic was sleeping face down, face half buried into his pillow. She poked him in the shoulder, escalating to shaking him when he did not respond, carefully keeping watch to make sure she did not wake up her other three brothers. Finally he woke up and grumbled, “What do you want?”

“I’m heading to Sunset Park.”

He signed and buried his face back into the pillow. “Why?”

“I’m going to have an adventure.” She said.

“What, again? Fine, don’t burn anything else down.” He paused and seemed to go back to sleep before he muttered, “Be back in time for dinner.”

“I did not burn anything down.” She gave up as she realized that he really had gone back to sleep. She sighed and with familial duty discharged she left to begin her journey to the park.

It was deep into the old Sunset Park, so named because it was on the west side of town and backed into the woods. Half of the park was paved paths and neatly pruned and manicured landscaping but the further west you went it became less tended until the concrete paths gave way to asphalt. The asphalt had been poured when the park was originally established sometime in the 1950’s. Today it bulged up in places where the roots of the trees had grown beneath it, in places Judith could see the roots through the cracks. The tree’s themselves weren't much better, saplings fought for sunlight beneath the shadow of their parent, some had suckers splitting out parasitically stealing strength, the paths being the long sign that this was not a young wild forest. Judith was almost tripping over the roots when she stopped, looked around and on her third pass through the area she spotted it. It was hard to see because the tree’s still looked like pines, but the golden sunlight outlined the edges against the gray misty morning.

Inside the gate it was warm and sunny. It looked like the woods that she had just left, but the more she walked the more she noticed how strange this world was. Sometimes she could see something blue in the trees, that was either a bird or a squirrel. Twice she stopped and listened as the bird song died away and she felt like she was being watched, she put her back to a tree she scanned the area around her, as she was searching the tops of the trees she saw what looked like eyes watching her from a tree branch. She stared back at it, it was hard to tell how large it was, but the eyes were slitted like a cats. How long they locked gazes Judith didn't know but eventually the eyes blinked then they closed. Judith stayed where she was for another ten minutes before carefully continuing.

As she wandered, the forest around her began to change slowly. The trees started to space them selves out more and the brush disappeared altogether. These trees had wide and flat leaves, and had fruit hanging from the limbs. They looked like purple cherries, Judith reached up to take one before she remembered that it would be a bad idea. She forced her hands back down and wrapped her hands around her elbows and continued walking. Some of the trees had ladder’s resting against the trees and at their feet were buckets. Curious she stepped up on one and took at look at the flowers, they were tiny pink with very little in the way of petals.

She continued her walk into the orchard, within ten minutes the tree’s changed to ones with square leaves and heavy fruit that she first thought were oranges but when she took a better look at the thin skin and the blue seeds showing through a crack. The flowers on these trees were a deep red that bled yellow to the edges and put her nothing so much a cross of tulips and roses with three rings of two large petals. When she peeked inside the stamens were black with red tips. She kept her hands busy by digging some food out of her pack and chewing on it as she walked. At one point she passed by a strange tool that gleamed oily in the light, she was sure to step around it as she passed by. She was going back to scanning the sky when she saw something ahead of her.

She sped up and soon enough she could see that there was a wall in front of her. It was made out of what looked like smooth black bricks. When Judith let her hands run over the wall ans as she felt where the mortar should be, she had to rethink that. It was like a solid slab of stone that had been crafted to look like a brick wall. She looked back from where she had come then back at the wall, before preparing to climb over, this was one forbidden fruit that she could not resist. After slipping down the first two attempts she got over the wall and she landed in an orchard of an entirely different sort.

These trees looked like they had grown from geodes, with crystalline trunks that nonetheless were smooth to the touch. When she looked up and could spot where a limb had been trimmed, sharp edges revealing their true nature, fruit hung form the limbs all in the colors of gems. Unlike the orchard behind her this one has trees of all different sorts, she passed by an emerald tree and another tree that was mostly purple but changed colors at certain angles. As Judith was inspecting a white stone, carefully not touching it, when she heard another voice, deeper into the orchard.

Carefully she started walking in the direction of the voice, carefully keeping an eye out for any clues that this was a trap. She had started to see tops of obelisks and she knew that she was starting to come to the center. In total there was four of them and they formed the corner points of a large clearing and inside there was a ring of five cages. Judith would have though that they were bird cages but for their size and one of the cages was occupied. The occupant was crying out for help, he was standing om the center of the cage. As she kept close trying to keep herself hidden, she thought that the recognized him. She crept behind one of the obelisks and peered around, she did know him but from where? She crept closer to take a better look, if it was a trap she would know who it was immediately. As she crept closer she had to concede that she did not know him, though he did look familiar. He resumed shouting for help while she hid and attempted to think of where she knew him from.

Her patience ran out before she could put a name to his face, pulled out the claw hammer and decided that if this was a trap she would rather spring it and deal with it then wait in indecision. She walked out from behind the tree, took two large steps and asked. “How did you end up in that cage?”

She guess he must not have seen her step out as at the sound of her voice he screamed. The scream was brief and he cut himself after a moment. Before staring at her with wide eyes, “Are you human?” his voice was wavering as he spoke.

Judith swallowed the sharp response of “Of course, I am are you?” and instead replaced with “Yes. How did you get here?” Quietly he started to explain that he had been workings out in the park doing some work cleaning the park and he had looked up and found himself elsewhere. He had been trying to get back when he had gotten hungry and attempted to eat one of the fruits from the orchard. “And then something showed up and put you in this cage.” She finished.

He nodded, “Can you get me out?”

“I’ll do my best.” She walked around the cage searching for a seam that she could work on to get him out. But as she walked around she could neither see nor feel a seam to work on.

The metal was cool under her finger tips and refused to warm under her hands as she yanked at it to see if one of the bars were loose. She climbed up onto the cage to see if she would be able to get the cage removed from it’s stand when from the distance there was a deep clanging noise.

She jumped down and they stared at each other, before Judith ran and hid behind one of the tree’s as someone approached. What little noise there had been of the wind through the trees and birds in the distance silenced. The silence was filled by the pulse of her own heartbeat as she waited.

She did not know when he arrived, but she almost jumped out of her skin when there was a voice at the cage. “Child, who was here? Who attempted to free you.”

“What do you mean? No one was here.” The boy was something of a bad liar with his voice trembling like that, Judith through absently as she was groping around in her bag, It was as the voice was asking the question again that her hand closed around the cool handle of the hammer. As she pulled it out she almost dropped it, surprised she looked at her hand, it was trembling. She firmed up her grip, and peered around the tree.

Standing in front of the cage was a tall pale man, as Judith peered around her hiding spot she realized that she was close enough to make out the patterns on the leather that made up of the clothes or armor that he was wearing. She watched as he pushed the cage and set it swinging. It started to speak again when Judith found herself lunging forward hammer in hand.

She brought it up in an over hand swing and struck the man in the head. There was a tearing noise like she had hit a paper-mache balloon and not a skull. The hammer sunk in like it was putty, and when she removed it with her jerk there was no blood. When she looked back up the boy had his hands over his mouth to prevent himself from screaming. That’s when the cage shuddered, and then there were cracks in the metal. Both of them had the idea at the same time and they pried out a large enough gap for the boy to tumble to the ground.

Judith was pulling the boy up by the hand when there was a deep roar from behind them. The boy took off and with their hands still clasped, Judith was pulled along. As soon as they boosted themselves over the wall, she took the lead and started to follow the orange ribbons. They were maybe three feet into the wood line when they felt something impact the ground behind them. They didn’t bother to look they just started to run, as they hear something behind them starting to chase them.

They ran until their lungs burned and then kept running. Judith kept her eyes alert and turned at the first flash of orange, having no time for conscious thought. Some times it seemed like she could feel the breath of the beast on the back on her neck, other times she thought that they might have lost it. It’s trying to run us down until we collapse, ran though Judith’s mind as she ran.

She was not sure how long they had been running when the boy started to drop behind and he gasped out. “I can’t go farther we need to rest.”

“We can’t we need to keep moving.” Judith said, “I came through up here, just a little farther.”

When they ran into the clearing where the gateway was, she was horrified that the gate way was no longer there. She could no longer see the razor edge of the gateway that would have lead them home.

“It closed.” She said to herself, this was something that she thought that it might have happened, this was the worst time for this to happen. Still she took a second and then third look around to just making sure that she was not missing it. She was on the fourth walk through when she heard the roar and she spun around and saw a weasel like face of the best approaching. She started to grab her hammer from her bag when the boy reached into his pocket and pulled out pepper spray and sprayed it into the face of the creature.

The roar that it gave out was worse than all the roars that it had made before. As it pawed at it’s eyes they both ran off into the woods.

“Did you see it’s eyes?” the boy asked when they had put a good amount of distance between them.

“Stop talking and run.”

“They looked human.”

“I know, keep running!” They were running deeper into the woods, getting more and more lost but they were at least getting away from the beast. Scanning the woods when a bring flash of color caught her attention, it was not another ribbon but a ring of toadstools. A crazy idea seized her, she thought to herself that this had better work or they are both dead as she caught a hold of the boy and pulled him with her.

They ran to the ring, and when their feet hit the ground there was a change. The breath on the back of their necks vanished and they found themselves smacked in the face by the cold. They ran a few more steps before they stopped and looked around. They saw a white trunked forest with wide broad leaves. No monster. Judith checked in each direction to see if it had followed them.

“What was that?” the boy asked.

“A toadstool ring. It must have contained another portal.” Judith bit down on what she wanted to say afterwards that if it hadn't they would be dead.

“Oh. Good.” He said. He blinked and swayed and Judith felt exhaustion hit her like a brick to head. Her vision blurred and she found herself sitting with her back to a tree. She tilted her head back and breathed deeply her mind running over the events of the past hour. She wasn't sure when her eyes had closed but she was roused by the boy, poking her shoulder.

“Hmm?” She said in the beginning stage of groggynees.

“I never got your name. My name is Chris.” he said.

“Oh. I’m Judith.” With that she slept the sleep of of the exhausted.


	2. The Second World

Judith didn't know how long she was asleep but it was enough that the sun was low in the sky. Well, one of them she thought as she looked up into the sky and noticed that there was at least a second sun. For the lack of any other options they walked toward the smoke, along the way they sat and had a meal of the granola bars that Judith had brought along. They soon were walking down a path that at one point had been paved, and a gray jay screamed above them. The normalcy of the woods was soothing after walking through the silent orchard and lacking the roars of the monster. When they finally left the shelter of the woods they could see a village.

The smoke was rising for every chimney and as they looked at the village they started to notice that something was off about it. Judith couldn't put her finger on why it was so strange. “The cars,” Chris said, “Where are the cars?” Judith scanned over the town again, he was right the roads were narrow and there was no evidence of any sort of car having ever existed in the town. The two watched the town for a while before the knowledge of the dwindling supplies had been planned for only one.

As they walked into the town, they started to pass people in their daily routines. Most of them at the sight of the two went still and watched them as they walked into town. Judith noticed the most of them were wearing what looked like wool dyed in muted colors. As they walked deeper into town they started to attract a lot of attention and a crowd started to gather. Judith felt her jaw clench as the considered what might happen if the crowd took against them, Chris has started to push in closer to her.

Judith jumped when she heard the loud laughter coming from one of the houses. It was coming from an old woman who was sitting on the edge of the porch look at them. “Strangers from another world.” She called out. “Did you escape from the pale men in the woods?”  
“Yes we did. Do you know another way back to our world?” Chris asked.

“Which world boy? There are many worlds and many ways to get to those worlds.” The old lady smiled at them, showing her worn and yellow teeth.

Judith thought then asked, “Do you know of a portal than could return us to our original world?”

“Smart girl. Come in and eat a meal with me and we’ll talk about the matter.”

Judith looked around noticing that once they had started speaking with the woman. After the had begun talking the crowd had disbursed and they were being ignored. Meanwhile Chris was saying, “Thank you for your hospitality Ma’am, but they may be coming to look or us. You’ll be putting you and your people in danger.”

The old woman laughed again, it was smooth and genuinely amused. “My boy, they have already come and gone.” While the two stopped in shock the old woman went into the house, and they had to hurry in. “Until the two of you arrived I had almost forgotten their visit. They came when I was a little older than you, asking about strangers in odd clothes.” Judith and Chris sat and stunned and watched as the woman started to dish up a thick stew that was on the fire. She wanted to speak to the old woman ask how They had gotten ahead of them and by so much, did They come by often, what had happened all those years ago but the questions tangled themselves on her tongue and she said nothing.

Chris however got out “How did they know that we’d be here?”  
“The pale men have a strange relationship with time, its not the first time they have been too early to too late.” She blew on the strew. “As it happens I do know where there is a portal that will take you home.”

“For a price?” Judith asked.

“Not money. There is something that our village lost a longtime ago. We are lessened with out it. Eat the stew and I’ll tell you about it.”

The meal was some sort of two beans stew, with what Judith was starting to suspect was salted goat and purple turnips. As they ate their first filling meal since morning, the old woman, whom they would later introduced as Iannath, told them how a long time ago there had been a drought in the area. It had been a generation since the rain had fallen upon the village, and the days have only gotten hotter. All the village had known that they would die soon if nothing was done. One day a boy after watching the death of his parents he vowed that he would journey to find way to break the drought, he had traveled afar to the south where it was cold all year round and there he had won the favor of a ice demon and he brought back an artifact that cooled the air and brought enough rain that no one died. It had been kept by the leader of the village ever since, then eighty years ago it was stolen and things had slowly started getting worse.

“At this rate the drought that was broken will return. We know where it is,a nd who took it we need you only to get it back.” Iannath said.

“What do we need to do?” asked Judith with a sigh. Iannath told them.

Later as they were starting to get ready to sleep, Iannath had offered the use of the corner of her floor, the air was silent with the weight in unasked questions.

“Now that we have time, how do you know so much about all of this?” Chris asked as they sat and prepared for the night.\

Judith rolled her shoulders and wondered what could she tell him. That the first time she had seen one of Them was when she had been watching her mother from the basket in the shopping cart as her mother had stopped to speak with her friends in the grocery store. How she had been watching when one of them had walked up and had been standing inches away from from her mother watching them. How she had screamed and cried for her mother and how relived she had been when they had left and how it had continued even when she was taken home and punished. At age eight she had been chased one of Them and for the first time she had encountered one of their servants and realized what they had once been and what might be her fate if she was caught. Judith settled for, “ I have a lot of experience. I’ve been seeing them since I was young. This isn't the first time I’ve been chased by one of them.”

Chris looked at her, “You’ll have to tell that story.”

“Someday, but first we need to get back to our world.”

Once again they ended up in a forest, this time starting up at the tallest tree that they had ever seen. It’s branches concealed from the sun, casting the ground into a shadow that spread out yards from the base of the tree. Judith stood in the shade and studied the trunk it was was growing in what appeared to be bibulous rings, testing she put her hands in the crevices to see if she could get a good enough grip to pull herself up and climb the tree. She was thumping back onto her heels when Chris appeared from the other side of the tree and gestured for her to follow him. Curiously she went around and saw the worn into the trunk of the tree was a ladder up into the heights of the tree. As Judith started to wonder how the ladder was formed with out being cut, Chris started to climb, Judith following soon after.

By the time they reached the top Judith's hands were hurting so much that when she reached the top she had to stop and let her hands rest. She inspected her palms and noticed that she was now starting to have puffed up blisters form from where the skin had started to rub loose. As she felt the skin slide back and fourth she took a look around at where they arrived. It was like a landing had been worn out of the tree the same was as the ladder had been, it was wide enough for them both to stand on and fit four more people. There was a door way that glowed with warm firelight inviting them to come in and relax from the hard climb. Judith distrusted it instantly.

Chris crept up to the door way and peered in, ignoring Judith’s hiss to be careful. He turned around and looked back and her and said “It’s a spider’s nest.” Judith nudged him out of the way to look herself. In the center of the room there was brazier in the center of the room that continued the roaring fire that cast the welcoming light. If you were looking straight in at the fire you would miss it but from her position crouched at the bottom of the door she could see what was above. The ceiling was covered in fine webbing, strands glistening in the light. She was sure, that the ceiling was taller than that and that the spider that had created this lay in concealment to await those who would wandered into it’s trap. Some how they had to get the spider down and create a plan to attack because what the weapon was likely kept was up away from any casual contact.  
While she was thinking of plans to get the spider down, Chris made a startled noise in his through then he stood up and strode into the room. Judith grabbed for the back of his shirt but missed. He went straight to the brazier and reached in, then pulled out a long icicle that reflect the light, she was watching the light play around the room when the heat hit her. It was like she had walked next to a large bonfire. She had no time to think about this more when the spider appeared. Chris must have brushed a few strands of the web when he had entered.

It descended rapidly towards Chris, then repelled back as he pointed the icicle at it. It landed back on the ceiling and then it spoke, “So you’ve found it.” It started to circle around the room while Chris kept it in his sight the icicle always pointing at it. “Just because you have it doesn't mean that you’ll leave with it.”

Judith dug back into her bag for her hammer, if the spider ever gave her the chance she would do what she needed to do. Finally she got her change when the spider dropped to the ground in front of her to menace Chris. Dropping the bag she charged forward to try to land a blow on the spider. As she drew closer she found her legs caught and pulled up to suspend in the air. “Did you think that would work?” Judith was pulled in front of the spider, distantly she hear Chris shout for her to be let down but she focused on facing the spider. “My I didn't think he would see one of you?” The spider said “Is he losing faith in his soldiers?” Judith glared back. “Did he cut out your tongue? Pity at least you won’t be telling anyone what I’m going to to two thieves.”

“I don’t know what your talking about.” Judith shouted. “Put me down!”

“How rude, I wouldn't think that his standards would lapse.” The spider said before it jumped back onto the ceiling. Judith yelled as she was jostled and swung as it moved until it was holding her above the flames. As she danged she could feel the heat rising from the fire, and contented herself with glaring not wanting to risk being dropped into the flames. It was when she could feel the ends of her hair start to smoke and crinkle that the spider did something unexpected. It laughed.

The laugh was one that on a human would have been gut shaking. It rolled through the room and wedged itself into Judith’s ears, if she still hadn't been carrying the hammer she would have slapped her hands over her ears to keep it out. “He missed one.” the spider said, between laughs. “Poor incomplete child, did you come here just to steal from me?”

Horror chocked Chris as he stared at as Judith dangled from the line of spider web. He had meet her once before and had known her by her reputation before he had been kidnapped by those creatures, but she did rescue him from the cage that he had been in. During their escape she had been friendly enough and maybe one day they would be real friends, but right now she was upside down in the grip of a giant laughing spider.

His mind was racing trying to find a way to get her back down and both of them out of here alive. He was absorbed in thoughts of escape when the icicle in his hand grew colder and the cold started to spread up his arm. The spider had started to swing Judith as it talked to her, causing her to swing like a ragdoll in the hands of over excited child. When the cold reached his elbow it finally dragged his attention away from the scene playing out in front of him. His fingers and palm were starting to turn blue where they touched it, he tried to pull his hand away from the icicle but it was stuck to it. As he watched the sensation of cold started to move up to to his shoulder and more of his hand started to turn blue, was it his imagination or was there a trace of black on one of his fingers. His mind whirled and locked up as he was stuck between these two situations, his almost friend being menaced by a spider and he was slowly contacting frostbite on his arm. His heart would have raced and his lungs expand with the effects of adrenaline, but the cold had already reached them slowing them to a regular calm pace, like he was in bed at home. He glanced at his arm again, and almost all of it was blue with traces of the black starting to spread in tendrils to the back of his hand. He was going to freeze here and if he was unlucky he would get to witness Judith death as well. At the thought of her he glanced back up to see her apparently shouting back at the spider through he still couldn't hear anything that they were saying, it was a sound like it was covered by the rushing of a river under a sheet of ice. That when the cold reached his head and his thoughts and mind slowed.  
It was decidedly odd sensation, to have this sheet of cold ice over the his thoughts. He looked up at the spider and felt contempt for the coward that had resorted to theft in the night. They felt too safe in their nest. Distantly Chris could feel that this was someone else’s thoughts but he couldn't gather the strength to properly fight back. The chill reached a conclusion and then he felt something start to gather and he felt the cold start to leave his feel when the pressure released and suddenly felt felt feverishly warm as a bolt of ice spat out from the icicle and it impacted on the leg that was holding Judith aloft. The spider let out a scream and dropped Judith to the ground where she landed with a thud and a gasp of chocked out breath. The spider retreated back into the depths of the nests and the two of them went down the ladder as fast as they could.


End file.
